Cameron Munter had argued for a reduction in drone strikes against militant targets near the border with Pakistan – attacks which are widely unpopular in Pakistan.

The U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter, will leave his post in the summer, less than two years after taking one of the toughest jobs in the State Department.

Mr. Munter came to Pakistan in October 2010 with high hopes. He wanted to get out from behind the Embassy’s security cordon and meet with ordinary Pakistanis.

He came to the post with his wife, an aid expert, aiming to bring a sense of normalcy to an Embassy where many staffers are on one-year tours without their families.

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Things proved a lot tougher. Within three months, Mr. Munter was dealing with a diplomatic crisis caused when a Central Intelligence Agency contractor, Raymond Davis, shot and killed two men on the streets of Lahore.

Pakistani authorities jailed Mr. Davis and released him only after the U.S. paid money to the families of the dead men.

The relationship with Pakistan deteriorated further in May 2011 when a team of U.S. Navy SEALs raided a Pakistan garrison town and killed Osama bin Laden.

And then, in November, the mistaken killing of 24 Pakistani soldiers in a U.S. helicopter airstrike on the border with Afghanistan further worsened relations.

Until recent weeks, most high-level civilian and military meetings between the two nations were suspended. Pakistan continues to ban the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from using its territory to provision troops in Afghanistan.

At times, Mr. Munter disagreed with the Pentagon and CIA over how to deal with Pakistan.

He argued for a reduction in drone strikes against militant targets near the border with Pakistan – attacks which are widely unpopular in Pakistan. At times, he objected to specific strikes but was overruled by Washington.

Mr. Munter was often keen to see the Pakistani side of things, unsuccessfully advocating a formal U.S. apology after the deaths of the Pakistani soldiers in November, a Pakistani official said.

It’s unclear where Mr. Munter, a career diplomat who served previously as ambassador in Serbia and did tours in Iraq, will go next. Attempts to reach him for comment were not successful.

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